Tuesday 1 April 2014

YIN (NATURE) VS YANG (HUMANS)!



I found myself sleep walking, my mind drowned in an oasis of serenity, my eyes blinded by phantasmagorical images, my ears deafened by the sound of silence, my sense of smell beclouded by the break of spring and my touch gently caressed by leaves as time began to draw out like a blade and my circadian clock frozen while I dawdled through the evergreen. Where was I and what was I doing here were questions that did not matter as I was too engrossed in learning about the alien world I found myself in. For once I thought I had escaped the clutches of humanity and somehow zapped myself into a nonhuman world. The sound of silence was at its zenith just before the break of dawn when the world melodramatically congealed into an overture of bird chirps at ear-splitting intensity that resonated beyond the horizon, the salubrious weather complimented by trees embellished with colourful flowers and fruits, where creatures of nature played themselves out with alacrity and my pliable stripes allowed me to blend in with the convivial environment.
                                   

                                                     A male Taylor Bird looks for nest building material.
As I strolled through this mystical world an entire ecosystem unfolded before my very eyes. At the top of the food chain were four packs of very aggressive territorial dogs that preyed on anything that moved. Several stray Machiavellian cats lay in wait to hoodwink the dogs and prey on the jocose birds that seem to relish in their morning activities of honey and worm gathering, oblivious to the feral nature of cats that lie in wait close by. A male tailor bird was engrossed in patching together every bit of fibrous material he could lay eyes upon to construct a long extravagant looking nest in a furtive attempt to entice his female compatriot to choose him to start a family with. A pair of Grey Hornbills drew my attention from the tailor birds as they made their way over to fruit bearing trees and began feeding. Soon a group of ten Jungle babblers dived into a patch of muddy water and began frolicking right under the tailor bird’s nest. A melodious faint distant murmur exploded into several humming notes as a clique of Robins (Oriental Magpie Robins and Indian Robins) burst into the scene in search of worms and other insects. Not to be outdone, a coterie of Parakeets (Alaxender Parakeets and Rose-ringed Parakeets) made their way over and kicked off a game that I liked to call ‘The show of Strength’.  By now some 40 species of birds were out, with the sole intent of collecting material for constructing their nests. Some birds were building their nests on low lying shrubs, some on dry trees and some on evergreen trees. I was flummoxed at the carefree attitude of the birds but on closer inspection, the reason behind their nescient attitude became all too clear. The birds seem to have a watch dog in their midst that does the scouting while they go about their daily chores. A quid proquo relationship seems to be at work between the squirrels and birds while the one watches out for danger, perched high on a tree and sprouts out an alarm call upon finding a threat, the other seems to incognisantly scrounge for food and nesting material. The alarm call was sounded and the birds disappeared as quickly as they appeared. A lone cat on the ground and an Eagle from the sky were attracted by the sounds made the birds. My attention was suddenly diverted to a spider that meticulously spun a web between adjacent plants, a bulwark that came to her defence against creatures bigger than her and a trap for creatures’ smaller than her. . I was bamboozled at having been stuck in a world that was so alien to me, unable to fathom the gamut of what I was seeing and mosaic together a complex puzzle that was being screened before my eyes. A cacophony of loud blood curdling war shrieks seemed to make its way towards me, and for the life of me I had no idea then what the source of it was, decided to make a run for cover before being caught in the midst of it all. I made a beeline for the bushes and after about half an hour I was able to see a troop of 20 monkeys led by a dominant male, perambulate along the trees in a brave attempt to assert his dominance over the dogs and mark their territory. The fight left one monkey badly injured and a trail of blood that led to the dogs. Several dogs with deep canine gashes were huddled together in a recuperative symposium that provided solace to all members of the pack. The adult males were gearing up for another fight by grunting at each other while the docile females escorted the pups to a sequestered bush far away from the battle zone. A battalion of ants, like war soldiers marched along the muddy ground, over every fallen twig and under every dry leaf in search of food, to take back to their hive, a complex hierarchical society nestled deep within the comforts of the underground, away from the disturbances of the outside world. I was soon greeted by the presence of the busiest creature on the planet, the Honey Bee, a creature that is responsible for pollination of over 90% of our plants and the sole reason for the continuation of life on this planet. The end of the honey bee synchronously marks the end of life on earth.
                                              
The Sparrow Hawk scouting for prey.
I was soon hit by an insinuation that this was not a dream and that I was within the walls of my colony. For a moment I had transcended into a world within our world and I, a human was the only incongruous element amidst their world and yet none of the creatures seemed to feel the need to repatriate me back into my narrow-minded human world. The prodigious magnanimity of Mother Nature towards human kind is beyond my fabric of understanding. 

A White Wagtail hunting for ants.
New Motibagh, a gated colony built on reserved forest land plays host to more than 51 species of birds, probably one of the most diverse ecosystems found within any residential colony. As the days flew by, I found myself shutting the doors to my human world and spending more of my time within the ‘Real’ world. I was awestruck at the amiable nature of every single creature towards me and within a matter of days I became a free-living member of their world. Every day I would walk into their world with my camera and observe their activities. Soon creatures of all kinds right from birds to garden lizards, accepted me as one of their own, and never hesitated to be their jocund selves. I would especially hunker down in front of a puddle of water and to my surprise I would see close to three hundred fractious birds come over and play themselves out, either by bathing, drinking, chasing or fighting amongst themselves. When the alarm calls begin to sound, the small birds would disappear and I would be treated to cats, dogs, monkeys and birds of prey such as kites and eagles. Almost a year passed by and my animal friends just grew in number, though I can’t say the same for my gregarious human counterparts nonetheless I had nothing to complain about. I was exactly where I wanted to be and doing exactly what I wanted to do.
                                 
Alexandrine Parakeet defending her nesting site.
My bird friends taught me a lot about the real world and the true meaning of life and its hardships. The Parakeets for example take hold of a hollow burrow in the tree and defend it for four hard long months. They expend their valuable energy in gathering nesting materials, food supplies and fending off predators’ right from the month of October to February after which they choose partners and lay their eggs. The horn bills, one of the few birds that mate for life, spend a lot of their time in selecting a tree site for nesting. The female makes a hole within the main bark of the tree and enters it. The male from the outside seals the hole with a residue like paste that is created from mashed leaves, fruit seeds and excreta. The hole is just big enough for the female to stick her beak out while the male feeds her from the outside. There in the tree the female sheds her wing feathers and doesn't come out until the hatchlings are big enough to fly. The ever reticent and sedentary Owls, find it very difficult to locate their prey such as rats whose numbers are depleted to alarming lows due to incessant efforts by humans to eradicate them. Birds love to feed on mosquito larvae that thrive in stagnant water and so help keep a check on the robust mosquito population, similarly birds such as the woodpecker and barbets, feed on termites which if not kept under control tend to feed on various wooden materials such as chairs, doors and tables. 

                          A pair of Spotted Owlets that allowed me to film them for over a year. 

The more I saw, the more I felt the burgeoning need to combine both worlds. Humans, ever since breaking out of the ‘circle of life’ are doing all they can to control every aspect of the planet. The inexorable thirst for destruction is embedded deep within our DNA which automatically triggers the need to manipulate and beat everything around us into submission. The human world is a world that is primarily concerned with the interests of its own species, the ever shrinking forests, uncontrolled consumption of finite earthly resources and the folly importance given to the human life over every other creature on this planet along with a host of other man-made reasons has signed a post-dated death warrant to every living species on this planet. Take the mosquito menace for instance. If humans were to live on friendly terms alongside nature by planting trees without over cutting, trimming and pruning, we would have an abundance of birds living amidst us along with a host of other creatures such as frogs, toads, their young tadpoles, bats and dragonflies that would ensure that the mosquito and other bug populations are under control. It’s a service provided to us free of cost, in exchange for a home in our environment. Take away the plants, birds and the ecosystem that were to follow and we have an arid land to live on, coupled with mosquito, termite and mice infestations. We would then spend lakhs of rupees each year on ‘manmade’ hazardous chemicals that would be sprayed unceremoniously around the land. These chemicals are extremely dangerous as many of them are fatal cancer causing sprays. Their modus operandi on the human body is yet unknown, the medical bills on each person would run into the lakhs of rupees and their cumulative cost almost incalculable. These chemicals would seep into the ground and poison underground drinking water thus entering our food cycle. Studies are currently being carried on how the human tissues and organs store these chemicals and their side effects that they pose several decades later. Birds and other animals drink from these chemical infested waters and are poisoned by the thousands each year. People use various chemicals to eliminate various pests and these chemicals conglomerate at various water bodies such as ponds, streams, rivers, lakes and seas thus creating a cocktail of toxins that no scientist would even dare create under extremely safe laboratory conditions. So my question is, without going into various other manmade tragedies in the making, just sticking with mosquitoes and termites for now, all worth it?

                                                                   Words begin to fail me. 

One fine day to my shock and horror, I was treated to a sordid sighting where words even to this day fail me. Trees that took several decades to grow have been pulled down without qualms of conscience, shrubs that supported over a thousand birds cleared in one go and patches of forest land that lie in the periphery were stripped bare naked under the pretext of a security threat. Security threat? From whom I asked, from humans I was told. But what about my friends I asked, I got no reply.

                        The Common Myna with her hatchlings Just before losing their home. 

       Trees that took several decades to grow have been pulled down without qualms of conscience!

Birds that defended their homes and raised their brood for over three years lost their once untrammelled homes. Nests, eggs and hatchlings all destroyed with the swing of an axe while tractors in their vast numbers leave with freshly cut lush green vegetation. Urbanization spells the proliferation of the human world and the destruction of the real world that has been in existence for over 4.5 billion years. Many of my friends are now dead, some of them lucky to survive but for how long? Where do they go and can they live amidst this concrete jungle?  Within a span of two months, 30 out of the 51 species of birds have been driven out of my colony; the friendly ecosystem that once existed now lies in turmoil, the exemplum of a peaceful world overrun by the brutality of the human race. I was overwhelmed by an apoplectic attack and my mind was barraged with several emotions but such ad nauseam actions were rampant everywhere. Humans are a species that are above all and every living thing on this planet is theirs to control. 

                                                The Green Brigade is fighting for them. 

But I was not going to stand by and watch the humans massacre thousands of innocent lives even though they do not belong to the same species. Their inane actions will cost them dearly with time but as an ad hoc measure, a group of likeminded residents have come together and formed a phalanx known as the ‘Green Brigade’, a nature loves club that will work tirelessly to bring back nature into our lives through the power of education and spreading awareness amongst the residents. The sacrosanct fetishisms that were once embedded in our beliefs have now been discarded which is where the danger lies.  Conservation through education seems like the only way ahead. The Green brigade would serve as a recourse for nature and her creatures during this time of peril. All one can do is fight for her and hope that her resiliency brings back all the creatures that were wrongfully harmed and one day by an incredible stroke of good luck humans and nature can once again live alongside in harmony .